Wood finishing apparatus



May 18, 1948. w. w. PARTEE ETAL 2 WOOD FINISHING APPARATUS OriginalFiled May 6, 1941 gmwrms ZZZ-{P472596 Reissued May 18, 1948 WOODFINISHING APPARATUS Watkins W. Partee, Memphis, and Milton Gray,deceased, late of Memphis, Tenn, by E. L. Bruce Company, Memphis, Tenn.,assignee Original No. 2,288,585, dated June 30, 1942, Serial No.392,145, May 6, 1941. Application for reissue February 16, 1948, SerialNo. 8,644

' 9 Claims. (01. 91-55) 1 Our invention relates to the manufacture offactory finished wood fiooring in the form of strips or blocks. InPatent No. 2,276,253 granted March 10, 1942, there is disclosed amachine and process for producing finished wood flooring that has afinish that deeply penetrates the wood, as

differentiated from wood finishes that merely lie on the surface of thewood, and that is tough and elastic, not readily scratched, of goodlustre and more durable than prior finishes.

In the above patent, the finishing composition,

and stain (when required) and filler were separately applied and in anunheated condition to the cold wood in the order stated, said materialbeing of such character that there was secured a final blending andcombination of finish and/or stain, and/or filler in the'surface andsub-surface of the wood, all of these materials drying as a unit in thelater operations, leading up to and incident to the production of thefinal finish and polish of the wood. After the finish and filler hadbeen applied and rubbed into the wood, however, it has been necessaryheretofore to sub- .iect the thus treated wood to curing or air dryingfor at least 12 hours before applying the wax or other polishingcomposition. This interim would varyin duration depending upon thehumidity and temperature conditions prevailing at the time. Thisnecessitated large storage space for the semi-finished flooring andslowed down the output. In the present invention, the total timeexpended from the beginning to the end I of the operation is about 12minutes in one integral and continuous operation as compared to as muchas three days by the prior process. In addition, the final finish, whileof the same general character, is superior.

The operation of the machine and process will be described in connectionwith the finishing of strip flooring although it is equally applicableto the finishing of block flooring or other wood lamps, subjected tofurther brushing, rubbing in, and bufiing, then a coating of paste waxis applied and polished until dry and hard.

Referring to the drawing for a more complete disclosure of theinvention:

Figs. la. and 1b represent a plan view of the machine, 1b being acontinuation in the same straight line as la, the entire machine beingabout 200 feet long;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged transverse section on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1a; and

Fig. 3 is a similar view on the line 33 of Fla. la.

The machine consists of side frames I and between these traverses theendless rubber belt 2, which overlies a sheet metal plate 3. The belt ateach end is supported by pulleys l and 5 and is driven by the motor 8through the speed reducer I, belt connection a and pulley 5. Theflooring strips 9 are placed on the belt conveyor 2 by an operator andpass under a steel pressure roller II to insure a fiat horizontalsurface of flooring, as they pass under the spray booth II, where thefinishing composition and filler and color is applied. The strips are intongue and groove engagement as seen in Figs. 2 and 3 and thelongitudinal tongue side i3 may engage a corresponding groove along theside of the machine, spring steel fiat springs l3 on one side of theline, spaced about every 6 feet, keeping the strips of flooring togetherby forcing it to one side.

The particular type of composition that we apply to the surface of thehour is what is known as a penetrating seal finish. an example of suchbeing disclosed in the patent to F. H. Lyons 2,066,- 296 granted Dec.29, 1936, except for the paraffin wax which should be practicallyeliminated. Compositions of this character contain such skin formingdrying oils as linseed oil and China wood oil and a resin, all in avolatile solvent such as naphtha. Such compositions have the property ofrapidly penetrating the wood when applied. These compositions, afterevaporation of the volatile solvent or vehicle, dry and harden, eitherby oxidation or polymerization. The usual silex filler and a dye orstain can be thoroughly mixed with the finishing composition. thedifferent ingredients being miscible with each other and applied by amechanically operated spray in a predetermined quantity per unity ofarea to secure an even and uniform distributionrover the surface of thewood. when applied to maple fiooring, a dense and closed pore wood,rather than red oak flooring, a less dense and open pored wood, thefiller may be dispensed with. The coating composition may consist of afinish and stain, a finish and filler, or finish, stain 3 and filler.Some woods do not require a filler /and when any wood is finishednatural" no stain is used.

Immediately following, the spraying of the coating composition on thewood, the flooring which is, moving on the belt conveyor at the rate of17 feet per minute, is brushed by the revolving bristle brush l2, drivenby the motor I4 through the belt l5. This brush spreads the compositionuniformly over the surface of the wood. The flooring next meets therevolving burlap pad buffer [6 which further uniformly spreads andremoves any surplus composition. All the successive brushes or pads,rotating on a vertical axis are driven through an independent motor andbelt arrangement of the same kind as drives the brush l2, and they canbe swung up vertically on a horizontal pivot, of! of the surface of thewood, for changing and cleaning-"7 brushes and pads.

Following the operations just describecL the flooring enters the firstinfra-red light line I],

this particular line being about 30 feet longand containing a single rowof 250 watt infra-red lamps 2|. These lamps 24 are spaced about incheson centers, 4-5inches above the surface of the floor and maintain anoven heat of about 165 degrees F. The lamps are enclosed in a tunnelformed on the bottom by the belt or flooring and on the sides and top bysheet metal plates l8 supported on angle iron framing IS, the purpose ofthe tunnel being merely to conserve heat and avoid cross currents ofair.

The flooring, after it leaves the tunnel at a temperature ofabout-130435 degrees E, passes under a revolving bristle brush '20, thenpasses under another revolving bristle brush 2|. These two operationsserve to rub the materials in and fill up the minute depressions, andalso to distribute them in a more uniform way, on the surface of theficoring, and to some extent remove the marks left by the previousdistributing brushes which have operated on the surface of the flooringbefore it entered theifirst light bond in the wood. Chemical changes inthe composition are also started in the first section, the finishsetting up and holding the filler.

In the second heat section, substantially all of the solvents in thecomposition are removed by evaporation andv the final set of the finishand filler is completed. In this heat section oxidation orpolymerization of oertainingredients go to completion and this action iscomplete not only for the surface portion but for that portion of thecomposition that has penetrated deeply into the pores of the wood.

If the temperature in the first section were high, the composition wouldset up too fast and, the composition could not be properly rubbed in.Also a high temperature might prevent satisfactory elimination ofsurplus filler.

The desirableresults that are attained by the use lof infra red'rays aredue to the fact that heatis produ edwithin and throughout the entirethickness f finishing composition and the wood. The effect'see'ms to bethat the wood is heated from-the inside out, as differentiated from meresurface heating of the wood'by conduction from the outside in.

Since the composition used is of a character that penetrates the wood,the whole mass of comosition'is affected and not merely case hardened onthe surface which condition would seal in the wood, the excess moisturein the wood,

and the volatile components of the composition.

cylindrical bristle brush :9 driven by the motor infra-red lamps 25which is spaced about 5 feet from the first line, the tunnel beingformed of plates It, in substantially the same way as the tunnel in theline II. The tunnel is of the same length as the first tunnel and thelamp arrangement is otherwise the same as in the first tunnel exceptthat there are twice as many lamps in the two rows, as in the line 11.The oven temperature in the line 23 is about 210 degrees F. and the woodas it leaves the oven is about 1'72 degrees F. e

I Due to the different temperature conditions and the differentprogressive conditions of the impregnating compositions in the twosections, the changes that take place may be explained in part asfollows:

In the first tunnel. the radiant heat drives out some of the moisture inthe wood and which may inhibit proper penetration of the coatingcomposition or adversely affect the final finish. The kiln dried woodnormally contains about 8% moisture. The moisture which evaporated inpart as indicated, will'be replaced by the finish- The solvent vehicleand carriers in the finish also start volatilizing, which causes dryingof the composition and the forming of a firmer final 30, which removesany circular streaks from the prior brushes. Following this is anotherrevolving bristle brush 3| that removes any foreign surplus material.

Th next operation consists of a steel wool buffer 32 that reciprocatesback and forth with the travel of the flooring along the line. removessurplus filler, raised grain and extended particles of wood fibre thatmay be on the surface of the flooring.

Following the steel wool buffer, there is a regulated compressed airblower 33, directing a current of air on the surface of the flooringthat removes all particles of steel wool and other loose material andalso serves to cool to a. certain degree, thesurface of the flooring, inpreparation for its reception of the waxing that is to follow.

The next operation on the flooring is to apply to the upper surface acoating of wax. This is done by means of a revolving roller 24 that hasa felt pad applied over it and is warmed by contact with the heatedflooring and so set that the movement of the flooring below the roller,revolves the roller which rotates through a quantity of paste wax in apan or hopper 35. As the flooring is fairly warm at this point theroller pad is kept constantly warm and thereby moist with melted wax.The temperature of the roller bein slightly above the melting point ofthe wax enables a much more even distribution of wax over the face ofthe flooring than would be otherwise This.

' At several points of the finishing line, steel rollers 31 which areidle, are placed on top of the fiooring to prevent any pieces fromgetting out of line and disrupting the continuous operation.

If desired, the bottom of the flooring can have applied to it a coatingof paraffin wax as it passes over the receptacle 38 carrying the liquidparaflln.

One of the advantages of our machine arises out of the fact that thefinishing composition These brushes are placed at predeand the wood aremechanically worked on while in a warmed or heated condition. This isparticularly advantageous in connection with the penetrating seal typeof finish as described herein. For example, the wood filler in normaluse is applied cold and is rubbed into the cold surface of the wood.With the wood surface in a heated condition, the pores are more openthan when the wood is cold and the warmed or heated filler more readilyenters and fills the pores and small openings in the wood, resulting ina better filled product. Excess moisture that is released from the woodby heating naturally seeks egress through the surface and aids inopening up the pores. Heating acts both on the finish and the stain inmuch the same manner, causing them to become thinner and to penetratethe wood more readily. The amount of effort required in rubbing in theingredients of the finishing composition is greatly reduced when thewood is worked on while in a heated condition and a more even anduniform distribution of them is obtained, such evenness and uniformityof distribution being important for a good finish job.

comprising means for applying a finish composition to the surface of thewood, an extended series of infra-red lamps nearby said means forheating the coated surface of the wood to accelerate the setting of thefinish composition and to effect only a partial set of such composition;brush means adjacent the last lamp of said series for brushing theflooring while 'hot, to rub the compositionin the flooring and to fillup the minute depressions; a second extended series of infra-red lampsthe first lamp of which is ajacent said brush means and which serieseflects a substantially complete set of the finish composition; and aconveyor for conveying the flooring past the aforesaid instrumentalitiesin the order named and at'such speed that the flooring reaches thesecond series of lamps while only partially set.

3. An apparatus for finishing wood fiooring comprising means forapplying a penetrating seal type of finish to the surface of the wood;brushing means for uniformly spreading the composition and removingsurplus composition that has not penetrated the surface pores of thewood;

an extended series of infra-red lamps nearby said brushing means forheating the coated surface of the wood to accelerate the setting of thefinish composition and to eflect only a partial set of such composition;brush means adjacent the last lamp of said series for brushing theflooring while hot to rub the composition into the flooring and to fillup the minute depressions; a second extended series of infra-red lampsthe first lamp of which is adjacent said brush means and which serieseflects a more complete set of the finish composition; brush means nearthe last lamp of the second series for brushing and rubbing the finishwhile hot; 2. waxer for applying wax to the surface of the heatedflooring; a series of spaced polishing brushes for polishing the waxedsurface during different stages of the cooling thereof; and a conveyorfor conveying the flooring past the aforesaid instrumentali- Other meansfor heating the flooring than by infra-red lamps could be used but theinfra-red lamps have been found satisfactory in use.

We claim:

1. In apparatus for finishing wood flooring; means for applying acomposition to the surface of the wood comprising, an applicator forapplying a penetrating finish, and brushing means for removing surplusfinish and for uniformly spreading the finish over the wood; means forheating and setting the coated surface of the wood comprising anelongated radiant heater for radiating energy into the wood generatingheat in the pores of the wood that have been penetrated by the finish;means for polishing the heated surface of the wood comprising apolishing brush, a waxer, and a series of spaced polishing brushes; theapplicator and the waxer constituting the only devices associated withthe apparatus for applying a composition to the surface of the wood; anda conveyor for conveying the flooring past the aforesaidinstrumentalities in the order stated, said conveyor carrying theflooring that is between said spaced polishing brushes through a mediumcooler than the flooring whereby the wax passes through successivecooling stages between the brushes of the series.

2. An apparatus for finishing wood flooring ties in the order named in atime period not exceeding the order of twelve minutes.

4. An apparatus for finishing wood flooring comprising means forapplying a penetrating seal type of finish composition to the surface ofthe wood, means to rub off the surplus composition from the surface ofthe wood, an elongated radiator for radiating energy into thesub-surface of the wood to heat the wood and to set the finish therein,means for polishing the heated surface of the wood while hot comprisinga series of spaced brushes which work and rub the composition in thewood during successive stages of the cooling of the flooring, a waxerfor applying a wax to the surface of the flooring, a series of spacedpolishing brushes for polishing the waxed surface during successivestages of the cooling thereof, and a conveyor'for conveyingthe flooringpast the aforesaid instrumentalties in the order named and fordelivering the flooring to the waxer while the flooring is heated.

5. In apparatus for finishing wood fiooring, an applicator for applyinga finish composition to the surface of the wood, means for uniformlyspreading the finish over and removing surplus finish from the surfaceof the wood, an elongated infra-red radiator for radiating energythrough the, surface of the wood and into the surface pores thereofthereby heating the coated surface of the wood, means for polishing theheated surface of the wood comprising a brush adjacent the radiator forbrushing and rubbing the aaooa heated sunface of the wood, and aconveyor for conveying the flooring past the aforesaid instrumentalitiesin the order stated.

6. In apparatus for finishing wood flooring; means for applying acomposition to one surface of the wood comprising, an applicator fordepositing a penetrating finish on said surface, and

brushing means for rubbing the coated surface to uniformly spread thefinish and remove surplus finish from said surface; means for heatingthe coated surface of the wood to condition it for polishing comprisingan elongated infrared radiator for radiating sufficient energy into thesurface pores of the wood to set the composition in the wood: brushingmeans adjacent the radiator for rubbing the heated surface of the woodto rub in the composition; a waxer for applying wax to said surface ofthe'wood; a moving polishing element for polishing the waxed surface;and means for conveying the flooring past the aforesaidinstrumentalities in the order stated. 1 I

7. An apparatus for finishing wood flooring comprising means forapplying a composition to the surface of the wood, means for heating thecoated surface of the wood to condition it for polishing, the last-namedmeans including an elongated radiator of infra-red radiations forradiating energy into thejsurface pores of the wood generating enoughheat therein to set the composition, a waxer for applying a polishingwax composition to the surface of the wood, a movable polishing brushfor polishing the waxed surface, and means for conveying the flooringpast the aforesaid instrumentalities in the order stated.

8. In apparatus for finishing wood flooring; means for applying a finishcomposition to the surface ofthe wood; heating means for heating thecoated surface of the wood to condition it for polishing; means forapplying a polishing composition to the surface of the wood comprising awaxer for waxing the hot wood surface; means for polishing the waxedsurface comprising a plurality of polishing brushes the first of whichbrushes spreads the wax while the wood is still hot, said polishingbrushes being spaced longitudinally of the path of travel of theflooring so as to polish the waxed surface during different stages ofthe cooling thereof; and means for conveying the flooring past theaforesaid instrumentalitios in the order stated.

9. A machine for completely finishing and waxing one surface-of oakflooring in a form ready for use comprising a conveyor adapted toreceive a continuous series of strips of flooring and to carry them inone continuous motion past the hereinafter named instrumentalities inthe order named and in a time period not greater than the order oftwelve minutes, applicator means for uniformly applying and spreading onsaid surface of the flooring a composition composed of a penetratingseal type of finish mixed with a filler, means for heating the coatedsurface of the wood including an elongated tunnel through which theconveyor carries the wood, said tunnel having an elongated radiator ofinfra-red energy therein for radiating energy into pores of the woodnear the aforesaid surface, whereby to set the finish composition thathas been applied to the wood, and to condition the wood for polishing, abrush adjacent the exit end of the tunnel for brushing the aforesaidsurface of the flooring to rub in the composition, a waxer for waxingsaid surface while the latter is in heated condition, and a polisher forspreading the wax and for polishing the waxed surface while said surfaceis above ambient temperature; said applicator and said waxerconstituting the only instrumentalities associated with the machine forapplying compositions to said surface.

WATKINS W. PARTEE. E. L. BRUCE COMPANY, Assignee of Milton Gray,Deceased,

By E. L. BRUCE, .13.,

President. REFERENCES CITED The following references are of recordin thefile of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,316,674 Blackketter Sept. 23,1919 1,510,465 Dittmar Oct. 7, 1924 1,510,466 Dittmar Oct. 7, 19241,510,467 Dittmar Oct. 7, 1924 1,860,664 Edgecumbe et al. May 31, 19321,998,615 Groven Apr. 23, 1935 2,066,296 Lyons Dec. 29, 1936 2,276,253Partee Mar. 10, 1942 2,321,937 Quinn June 15, 1943

